Hewlett Packard

Hewlett-Packard Co. is continuing its recent spending spree by buying ArcSight Inc., a Cupertino, Calif., security software company, in a deal worth about $1.5 billion, the two companies confirmed Monday. HP said it would pay $43.50 a share for the company, which makes software that detects intrusion attempts on big computer networks. The deal will help HP beef up its line of software for commercial computer systems, as it increasingly tries to sell a full range of hardware, software and tech services.

Software giant Oracle Corp. has tapped former Hewlett-Packard Co. Chief Executive Mark Hurd to be the company's co-president and a director on its board. Hurd, 53, resigned as head of HP, the world's largest computer maker, on Aug. 6 after a former contract worker for the company accused him of sexual harassment. HP's investigations found no evidence of harassment, but uncovered "violations of HP's Standards of Business Conduct" related to his expense reports, according to the company's statement announcing his departure.

Intensifying an increasingly bitter feud between two technology heavyweights, Hewlett-Packard Co. went to court Tuesday to try to prevent its former chief executive, Mark V. Hurd, from taking a top post with Silicon Valley rival Oracle Corp. A day after Oracle announced that Hurd would become the software giant's co-president and have a seat on its board, HP filed a lawsuit alleging that Hurd could share company secrets with Oracle and asking that he be barred from working there.

Computer maker Dell Inc. withdrew Thursday from the three-week bidding war over tiny data storage company 3Par Inc., which quickly accepted the latest offer at $33 a share from Dell rival Hewlett-Packard Co. HP's final bid, which values the Fremont, Calif., company at $2.4 billion, came Thursday morning. Dell wasted little time responding: An hour later, it threw in the towel. Dell started the bidding Aug. 16 with an offer of $18 a share, or about $1.13 billion. HP, looking to expand beyond its basic manufacturing line, quickly upped the ante, and the subsequent tug of war turned 3Par into a sweetheart.

September 2, 2010 | By Maeve Reston and Seema Mehta, Los Angeles Times

Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer and her Republican opponent Carly Fiorina met in a contentious first debate Wednesday that seethed with disputes over their records and covered a broad range of issues from the economy to climate change to abortion rights. For much of the hourlong debate, Boxer kept her opponent on the defensive by steering her answers into scathing critiques of Fiorina's record as chief executive at Hewlett-Packard, where she fired more than 30,000 workers before she was dismissed in 2005.

After nearly two weeks of scandalous chatter over the sudden departure of its chief executive, tech giant Hewlett-Packard reported strong financial results Thursday and stuck to an upbeat outlook for the rest of the year. Palo Alto-based HP reported earnings of $1.8 billion on $30.7 billion in sales for the quarter that ended last month, which represents a 6% increase in profit and 11% hike in revenue from the same period last year. The results match preliminary figures the company released Aug. 6, when it announced the resignation of hard-charging CEO Mark Hurd after an investigation into his relationship with an HP marketing contractor.

August 10, 2010 | By David Sarno and Walter Hamilton, Los Angeles Times

Without its star executive, Hewlett-Packard Co. was left rudderless Monday, its stock foundering, its future uncertain and some investors questioning whether the ouster was necessary at all. Just days after the world's largest computer maker ejected Chief Executive Mark Hurd, investors and analysts began asking if the company's directors acted rashly. In his five years at the helm, Hurd had overseen a near-doubling of HP's market value to $100 billion. After plunging almost 10% — and wiping out nearly $10 billion in value — in late trading Friday, HP shares failed to regain much ground Monday as investors remained anxious about the leadership vacuum.

Mark V. Hurd, the chief executive of Hewlett-Packard Co. who is credited with rebuilding the technology giant into the world's largest computer maker, resigned abruptly Friday following accusations of sexual harassment and falsifying expense reports. HP said an internal investigation found "numerous instances" in which Hurd submitted inaccurate expense reports meant to conceal Hurd's "close, personal relationship" with an independent contractor. The inquiry was launched after the unidentified contractor claimed she had been sexually harassed by Hurd.

For months, opponents of Republican Senate nominee Carly Fiorina have predicted that her record as chief executive of Hewlett-Packard — laying off tens of thousands of workers and outsourcing jobs to other countries — would lead to her defeat in November. But on Wednesday, Fiorina sought to turn that logic on its head, arguing that her experience with those difficult decisions makes her uniquely qualified to tackle job creation issues in Washington. During a discussion with several dozen women on a rooftop of a Beverly Hills office building Wednesday, Fiorina fielded a series of easy-going questions about her plans to help recent college graduates, to repeal the healthcare bill and to retain jobs in California.

Giving new meaning to the term "server farm," a team of Hewlett-Packard Co. researchers has come up with a plan for combining cow chips and computer chips to build an environmentally friendly data center — powered by manure. HP scientists have proposed using a biogas recovery system that would convert livestock waste into methane, to be used as fuel to generate electricity for data centers — those cutting-edge computer facilities that serve as the nerve centers for an increasingly Internet-dependent world.